Just over one month ago, I informed readers of the decline of American newspapers and the reported $661 million debt of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which led to their declaration of bankruptcy (article here). Ad revenues had fallen off dramatically as a result of advertisers channeling their dollars to the internet.

Today, the Associated Press reported that McClatchy Co. (owner of the Sacramento Bee), have cut another 1600 jobs in their ongoing push to reduce staff numbers. McClatchy Co. have eliminated nearly one-third of their workforce in less than a year! A significant reason …

Classified ads have shifted to the Internet in recent years, and the recession has been siphoning away more revenue in all ad categories since last summer.

The publisher owns 30 daily newspapers, including the Miami Herald, and have let go of 4150 employees since June 2008 consequently saving around $300 milllion in total. It is noted that McClatchy Co. have also reduced wages across the board, including the CEO, whose annual salary has been trimmed by 15%.

Even more alarming, the company’s stock has plunged by almost $40 per share closing recently at just 41 cents. Unbelievable! This is evidence that eyeballs are looking elsewhere for news & information. The internet is the new medium of choice, make no mistake.

The AP writer notes that McClatchy Co. have adopted a bare-bones approach for sustaining their hardcopy newspaper, and alternatively refocused efforts toward building their online format. The problem, however, is that there are now many internet portals for both global and local news. The monopoly is over. The game has changed.

I wonder where traditional newspapers will be in another year or two?

Interestingly, the Sacramento Bee appear to be utilizing a yellow pages only search function for Sacramento.com. No news, no sports, no headlines, or other content is provided there. I find this very odd. However, they have their online news site still located at SacBee.com, an obviously inferior domain name to Sacramento.com. There is no reason that the Sacramento Bee cannot consolidate their yellow pages search & news site all on the superior Sacramento.com domain name.

I’m wondering who’s making strategic decisions for the Sacramento Bee. Time will tell the story. Some companies can have a major asset right under their nose, and yet fail to properly utilize it.

Internet Domains advertising, newspaper, sacramento